[CPEO-MEF] Feinstein Tells Navy to Clean Up El Toro

[CPEO Moderator <cpeo@cpeo.org>]

May 1, 2002
 
THE REGION
Feinstein Tells Navy to Clean Up El Toro
Land use: Extent of tainted soil at the former Marine base hasn't been 
determined, says senator in a letter to secretary.

By JEAN O. PASCO, TIMES STAFF WRITER

Money raised from the sale of property at the closed El Toro Marine base 
should be used to cover the cost of environmental cleanup there, Sen. 
Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said this week in a letter to Secretary of 
the Navy Gordon R. England.

The Navy announced last month it would sell El Toro in accordance with 
voter passage in March of new zoning for the base, which calls for 
parkland, sports fields, a university campus, wholesale nurseries and 
two golf courses. The vote ended Orange County's plans to build a 
commercial airport at the site. In its announcement, the Navy said its 
cleanup plan was sufficient for a park and other planned uses. But the 
Navy hasn't determined the extent of soil contamination and Feinstein's 
letter said it shouldn't sell land at El Toro--designated in 1990 as one 
of the country's most contaminated sites--until it does."I find it 
disturbing that while the Navy first began its cleanup efforts at MCAS 
El Toro in the mid-1980s, it still has not tested" potentially 
contaminated sites, she wrote. Feinstein was referring to a study by 
Orange County environmental consultants that identified areas with "high 
probability for significant contamination" next to the base's four 
runways and rail lines. Although Feinstein has no authority to tell the 
Navy what to do, she sits on the Senate Appropriations Committee, where 
requests for government funding--including the Navy--are evaluated.

This story can be viewed in its entirety at:
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-000030930may01.story

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